Are you up for the challenge?

Yeah me! I did make it down to the farmers market last night, where I was handed this flier about the "Buy Local Challenge."

Here's how it works:

Who? Every family in Maryland is encouraged to take the "Buy Local Challenge!"

What? The "Buy Local Challenge" is a voluntary pledge to include locally-grown products in your meals for one week (July 19-27, 2008).

Where? Stock up at your local farms, farm stands and markets that offer genuine local products, and dine at restaurants featuring local farm food and wine.

Why? When you get a taste of fresh, delicious, farm-grown products, you'll want to buy from your local farmers all year!

How? You'll find directories of farms and markets, plus recipes, tips and much more at www.buy-local-challenge.com.

You don't have to be in Maryland to participate. All you have to do is aim to eat at least one item from a local farm every day.

I made sure to stock up this week on local fruits and veggies. Here is some of my Maryland-grown produce (the blackberries were actually from one of the ladies at church. They're so good).

I'm off to a good start with a cantaloupe (including the seeds), spinach, cinnamon and vanilla bean green smoothie, although I was tempted to make a soup. One of the stands was actually selling cold cantaloupe and peach soup. Yum. Too bad it contained yogurt (now was that really necessary?).

I continued the challenge with a dish I made up using the lovely lilac pepper, Japanese eggplant and cucumber pictured at the top of this post. I'll tell you more about it soon ;-)